Awards Assistant at Save the Children

ROLE PURPOSE

The purpose of this post is to support the Award Management team in the planning, securing and managing of both development and humanitarian awards. The position involves supporting award information management and compliance with systems and processes.

Under the direction of the Head of Awards, the Partnerships Specialist, the Awards Coordinator and the Awards Officer, the role will be responsible for supporting the team to adhere to all award management and partnership obligations internally within Save the Children and externally with donors.

This role will work closely with PDQ, Finance and Program Operations on proposal support, Award Management System (AMS) support, financial and narrative reporting, budget monitoring and analysis as well as donor compliance processes. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Proposal development

• Work with the relevant teams such as project managers, supply chain, business development and PDQ to conduct specific award risk assessment and complete the Awards section of the Proposal and Awards Risk Tool (PART) as well as support in ensuring timely uploading to AMS.
• Ensure all award documentation at opportunity and proposal stage is managed, processed, and uploaded onto AMS in a timely manner and that the related workflows are run in a timely manner.

Compliance (systems, processes, donor)

• Learn and follow SCI processes and relevant donor requirements.
• Understanding of the AMS system, maintaining and driving data quality
• Ensure that the Awards Management System (AMS) is effectively maintained, up to date and accurately records the audit trail for all awards and sub-awards.
• Ability to use AMS reporting to monitor awards and plan for key processes around partner reporting.
• Basic understanding of donor compliance and development of compliance checklists if needed.

Communicating with impact, negotiation, and coordination

• Effective and efficient communication with the other team members of the Awards and Partnerships team to ensure seamless delivery.
• Communication with budget holders, other program staff, PDQ, Finance and partners to obtain inputs into key processes and up to date budget figures.

Developing self and others

• Work with other team members to support team activities and outputs.
• Build relationships with members of other teams/functions within the organization.
• Involvement in capacity building to build skills in Awards and partnerships management.

Portfolio management, monitoring and analysis.

• Provide management information to the AM team via a portfolio analysis report for the periodic functional meeting showing information on pipeline, active, awards under amendment, high-risk awards, and closed awards.
• Problem solving skills to address and work through issues when they arise.
• Support into getting high quality ‘donor ready’ reports as designated by the awards Coordinator.
• Financial analysis skills to perform award monitoring processes and support in identifying any issues for further analysis.
• Ensure donor budget lines (DRCs) in AMS are as needed for donor reporting requirements especially for Directly Received Awards.
• Maintain and update the Income and Funding tracker and any other Management information system that require Award management input on a timely basis.
• Support and ensure award kick off meetings are done promptly.
• Work closely with the Awards Officer to support in developing Award Progress Review Meetings (APRMs) template for monthly review meetings as well as sharing calendar invites with all relevant teams in a timely manner.
• Support in coordinating with PDQ, Program Operations and Finance to ensure close out meetings are conducted in a timely manner.
• Ensure that all meetings are minuted and these minutes filed on AMS and follow up action points well captured.

Awards Management System Champion 

• Manage user permissions in AMS and ensure user lists in AMS are kept up to date.
• Ensure handover of award responsibilities in AMS (such as award point persons, person responsible for report submission etc.) when staff members leave their positions.
• Create partner records in AMS and submit for legal vetting; maintain partner records so that inactive partner records are archived.
• Support in providing orientation to award and non-award staff that need to use AMS.
• Monitor award data quality in AMS and liaise with relevant award managers to improve it. Provide monthly data quality reports and analysis to AM team.
• Participate in the AMS champions’ network and share experience, tips, and best practices on usage of AMS. Identify trends of issues and report to the group.
• Build capacity of staff on AMS use.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• University degree in international development, business administration, finance and/or accounting or related field
• Experience managing grants, contracts & sub agreements with knowledge of major funders’ guidelines (e.g., USAID, ECHO, FCDO, CIDA, SIDA, Giz etc.)
• Relevant experience managing donor funded projects with International NGO’s particularly those addressing human/children’s rights and those applying partnership approaches.
• Strong analytical skills, computer literacy and excellent documentation skills are necessary.
• Ability to work well with a team and establish relationships with other teams/offices.
• Cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing and negotiation.
• Experience working with implementing partners and managing partner awards/grants.
• Excellent time management and planning capacity